FENDER INTRODUCED ITS Paramount Series for discriminating acoustic players at Winter NAMM 2016, and the company has been busy updating and augmenting it in 2022. Fender started off the year with three new steel-strings, and then — just in time for warm-weather back-porch pickin’ — offered up the three instruments that make up the Paramount Bluegrass Collection: the PB-180E banjo, along with the PR-180E Resonator and PM-180E Mandolin on review here. The whole Paramount concept is about modern takes on vintage designs, and the Bluegrass Series takes it a step further, applying elements such as onboard electronics and modern neck profiles to old-time Americana instruments.
The PR-180E is an all-mahogany acoustic-electric round-neck resonator that comes in a nice
